Poole bus passengers: have you had your say on plans to cut subsidy by £100k?

BUS passengers in Poole have until February 14 to give their views on council proposals to cut £100,000 from its £800,000 subsidy.

Some services with fewer passengers, such as many of those that run in the evenings, at the weekend or away from busy roads, require financial support to be viable and it is these that are under scrutiny.

The council’s bus subsidy is one of the areas under investigation for potential savings as it strives to cut its cloth by £22.8million over the next four years.

The intention is to improve efficiency by combining routes or reducing their frequency rather than losing entire services.

A list of proposals has been put together, in consultation with Wilts & Dorset, that could generate savings of up to £100,000 a year. This includes Sunday changes to routes 4, 8 and 9, 11, 14 and 16; evening changes to routes 4, 8 and 9, 5 and 6; daytime routes 32, 1 and 50.

John McVey, passenger transport and accessibility manager, Borough of Poole, said: “So far we have received well over 200 responses to the consultation.

“In addition, bus passengers have been giving their views to surveyors travelling on the affected services. There is still time for people to give their comments on these proposals and we would encourage everyone to take part.”

Cllr Xena Dion, cabinet portfolio holder for transportation said: “We understand how important the bus service is for many of our residents and any decision that affects this service will not be taken lightly.

“Unfortunately it is no longer possible for us to provide all the services that we would like. With ever increasing pressures on our budget, it is becoming more and more difficult to avoid services being affected.”

£22.8 mill savings over the next 4 years wow that's a massive amount to cut. Cut the whole £800,000 now and make the bus company be competitive. If they can't then look to get another company to add some competition. Market forces will help the consumer. £22.8 mill of cuts is going to change the councils ability to function and provide services. The gov are still not going after all the offshore tax dodgers and we are paying for it.

£22.8 mill savings over the next 4 years wow that's a massive amount to cut. Cut the whole £800,000 now and make the bus company be competitive. If they can't then look to get another company to add some competition. Market forces will help the consumer. £22.8 mill of cuts is going to change the councils ability to function and provide services. The gov are still not going after all the offshore tax dodgers and we are paying for it.Dr Strangelove

time to re-nationalize the bus industry. A quick look at Go-ahead accounts will indicate the company made 80m profit from the bus industry, paid their chairman inexcess of 1m. whenever the bus companies are looking to save/make money they look at three choices. 1) reducing drivers salaries. since denationalization bus drivers salaries have decreased from 107% of the national salary to 83% in real terms #4k decrease. 2) they increase fares way inexcess of inflation. using rise of fuel as an excuse, however when fuel prices decrease there has been no decrease in fares.3) cut back non profit making routes. in my opinion it is time all bus companies ran the companies for the benefit of the passengers and not their shareholders.

time to re-nationalize the bus industry. A quick look at Go-ahead accounts will indicate the company made 80m profit from the bus industry, paid their chairman inexcess of 1m. whenever the bus companies are looking to save/make money they look at three choices. 1) reducing drivers salaries. since denationalization bus drivers salaries have decreased from 107% of the national salary to 83% in real terms #4k decrease. 2) they increase fares way inexcess of inflation. using rise of fuel as an excuse, however when fuel prices decrease there has been no decrease in fares.3) cut back non profit making routes. in my opinion it is time all bus companies ran the companies for the benefit of the passengers and not their shareholders.alisont1964

Leave the no4&32 alone it's the only bus that goes to Merley ,try cutting out the bus's to Bournemouth they boast their is one every three minute cut it back to every 15minutes,why not bring back the small bus's they use to have that would cut down on cost.

Leave the no4&32 alone it's the only bus that goes to Merley ,try cutting out the bus's to Bournemouth they boast their is one every three minute cut it back to every 15minutes,why not bring back the small bus's they use to have that would cut down on cost.60plus

Dr Strangelove wrote:
£22.8 mill savings over the next 4 years wow that's a massive amount to cut. Cut the whole £800,000 now and make the bus company be competitive. If they can't then look to get another company to add some competition. Market forces will help the consumer. £22.8 mill of cuts is going to change the councils ability to function and provide services. The gov are still not going after all the offshore tax dodgers and we are paying for it.

That's what happened before. Privatisation brought competition onto the buses. Then the big companies cut fares and ran duplicate services putting the smaller companies out of business.
Then the big companies put fares up and cut back services as they then have a monopoly.
The same thing would happen again.

[quote][p][bold]Dr Strangelove[/bold] wrote:
£22.8 mill savings over the next 4 years wow that's a massive amount to cut. Cut the whole £800,000 now and make the bus company be competitive. If they can't then look to get another company to add some competition. Market forces will help the consumer. £22.8 mill of cuts is going to change the councils ability to function and provide services. The gov are still not going after all the offshore tax dodgers and we are paying for it.[/p][/quote]That's what happened before. Privatisation brought competition onto the buses. Then the big companies cut fares and ran duplicate services putting the smaller companies out of business.
Then the big companies put fares up and cut back services as they then have a monopoly.
The same thing would happen again.djd

£100,000 of public money is a mere drop in the ocean at Poole Council, no doubt it is being wasted somewhere several time over on monthly basis. We could easily talk about increasing the provision of subsidised bus services if someone were brave enough to review the terrible inefficiencies and numerous pointless jobs in the Civic Centre - E.G. “In addition, bus passengers have been giving their views to surveyors travelling on the affected services" so what did those 'surveyors' cost in the context of a £100k 'saving' for goodness sake

£100,000 of public money is a mere drop in the ocean at Poole Council, no doubt it is being wasted somewhere several time over on monthly basis. We could easily talk about increasing the provision of subsidised bus services if someone were brave enough to review the terrible inefficiencies and numerous pointless jobs in the Civic Centre - E.G. “In addition, bus passengers have been giving their views to surveyors travelling on the affected services" so what did those 'surveyors' cost in the context of a £100k 'saving' for goodness sakemuscliffman

I do wish people would stop using the word "service". That implies the buses are for the benefit of passengers, when in fact they are purely a method of making profits.
........
The word to use is "routes".

I do wish people would stop using the word "service". That implies the buses are for the benefit of passengers, when in fact they are purely a method of making profits.
........
The word to use is "routes".Carolyn43

60plus wrote:
Leave the no4&amp;32 alone it's the only bus that goes to Merley ,try cutting out the bus's to Bournemouth they boast their is one every three minute cut it back to every 15minutes,why not bring back the small bus's they use to have that would cut down on cost.

I agree Merley needs a better service as its a rural area and quite isolated.

[quote][p][bold]60plus[/bold] wrote:
Leave the no4&32 alone it's the only bus that goes to Merley ,try cutting out the bus's to Bournemouth they boast their is one every three minute cut it back to every 15minutes,why not bring back the small bus's they use to have that would cut down on cost.[/p][/quote]I agree Merley needs a better service as its a rural area and quite isolated.portia6